Evolving Through Life with Women’s Wrestling

(photo via USA Network)

The second WWE Evolution is coming up this Sunday. I have the cool opportunity to write the first debut of it for this site. As usual, the review will be up shortly after the show ends.

As the show draws near, a lot of us are reflecting on our own evolutions as wrestling fans. As a woman, it is easy to jump in as a first-time fan and latch onto a Rhea Ripley, Timeless Toni Storm, or Willow Nightingale. If you watch a show, you’re very likely going to see some women in stories and in action. It hasn’t always been this easy.

My wrestling journey began in 1991 by accident. My stepfather was a fan and, for the first time, ordered a pay-per-view: SummerSlam. I hung around and watched it and I was IN. There were the mighty Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior of course, but there was also goofiness like The Mountie in jail, Bret Hart and Mr. Perfect putting on a masterpiece, and colorful characters like “The Dragon.” There were also two women – Sensational Sherri and Miss Elizabeth. Elizabeth was getting married to the colorful Macho Man, but there was Sherri being wild at ringside with crazy makeup cheering on Ted DiBiase. She was different and I loved her.

My fandom grew quickly. I’d jump into shows like Superstars and Prime Time while also discovering WCW, which had its weekly shows but also special free events like Clash of the Champions. It was heaven. My local video store had a sea of videos, both WWF Coliseum Videos and WCW Home Video, five for $5 for a weekend and I’d start to rent them. My toys were always a mix, with Barbies on one side and action figures on the other, but the WCW Galoobs and WWF Hasbros would start to join the collection. Eventually, I’d have a whole “Kids WWF” that involved not only the wrestlers but a sea of Ninja Turtles and other figures.

Through the early days, there weren’t many people that looked like me on the shows. When they were, they were managers or interviewers. WCW had Missy Hyatt and Madusa, WWF had Sherri and Elizabeth. I’d see a little bit of women on the videos I’d rented, but they were mostly Fabulous Moolah – who had the same gift Greg Valentine has of always looking 62 or so – and they were short and buried below more important matches.

Growing up as a female wrestling fan was a tale of keeping it quiet and being made fun of when I was open about it. Eventually I didn’t care – you like what you like. I rocked that 1994 Shawn Michaels “all over” tee all the time, but there weren’t any other girls to talk about it with. My walls at home were covered with posters of mostly men from WWF Magazine and Pro Wrestling Illustrated. I jumped into the world of magazines around the beginning of 1992, being drawn in both as an avid reader and having access to a bigger world.

This is where I note that yes, I realize there was and is a world of wrestling outside of what North America was presenting us. However, in the early 90s as a teenager I did not have access to the world of tape trading to find Japanese wrestling. I had 54 channels of cable – three of which aired wrestling at some point – and the videos my video store had for me to rent. I’d see the occasional female wrestler in PWI and the magazines like it, but more often I’d see far more of the foxy boxing, apartment-wrestling women.

My first big exposure to a woman being treated as a decent wrestler was Alundra Blayze upon her entry into WWF. The problem was that she was brought in to lead a division but nobody was brought in with her. She was the women’s division. Sure, Lelani Kai appeared as a random WrestleMania opponent and Heidi Lee Morgan would pop up, but Alundra didn’t have much going on. She’d have a random “foreign monster” come in to challenge on occasion, and that’s where I met Bull Nakano. She was like she looked – badass. I think if she had the exposure that Rhea Ripley has today, she’d have her own crew of eager female fans. Alundra and Bull put on a classic, but that’s about all they were able to do. Random foreign opponents would come and go for Alundra, and then we’d get Bertha Faye. While a talented competitor, Bertha was dressed in a goofy manner and played as in love with Harvey Wippleman, so she was comic relief in a division where she was one of two women present. We were getting snippets of stuff, but the shows were still for the dudes. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy them – obviously I did – but it was as a fan of men’s wrestling, which is all we had. We did have Sunny and she was the most beautiful woman in the entire world at the time and she was also as clever as could be, but we only got so much out of her.

Enter the Monday Night Wars and the Attitude era. Sunny was showing off more than ever and Sable was there too, handprints and all. Boobs were everywhere. Listen, I’m not mad at it – I like women. This is not a shock to people who have paid me any attention on the internet. We had the rebirth of the WWF Women’s Title again after Madusa went to WCW and dropped it in the trash can, only to find that WCW cared about the women’s division about as much as WWF did. She’d get guest appearance matches and we’d get occasional tournament matches, but the women’s division was spotty at best. Meanwhile in Vinceland, the T&A exploded. There wasn’t much in the way of women being presented as good wrestlers, and even the ones that were qualified – Jacqueline, Tori – were mired in bikini contests and the Sableverse. The Sableverse wasn’t always bad – she made some genuine improvements – but it’s all we got. Meanwhile, we had Val Venis being a porn star, Mark Henry with Sammi, and the world of Moolah and Mae Young. While there were moments of entertainment, it was mostly an embarrassing time to support the women. Of course, a lot of the era is embarrassing in general to watch in retrospect.

Enter Trish Stratus, Lita, and the Divas era. I know, I know: BUT THE DIVAS ERA. There was still plenty of T&A, but they’d also get to have occasional good matches. Trish and Lita in particular were given chances, along with women like Jazz and Mickie James. Mickie’s chase of Trish was the first time I in particular felt “seen” on TV, which is my own problem. Lita was like a lot of women’s “hey, she’s like me.” We’d have some actual good matches while also having to deal with Cyber Sunday spinning up Fulfill Your Fantasy matches. For the record, I have no issues with sexy stuff – but it should come as something the woman is confident and comfortable doing, not the only way they get on television. Women’s wrestling was still hard to watch with Jerry Lawler yelling about puppies and Mark Madden somehow being even worse in WCW’s final days.

I mostly turned out in the midst of the Divas era, though kept up through wrestling websites. Stuff like Trish barking like a dog was enough for me along with my consumption time going way down due to college. I was a WWE 24/7 On Demand subscriber and would keep up with what was on there, but I needed a break. I’d join the world of DVD collecting as I worked next door to FYE, which gave me easy access to finding any DVD I was looking for. Looking back, I appreciate what a lot of the women were doing – LayCool, the Bellas, Summer Rae, and friends – but know they weren’t getting a fair shot.

We rolled into the NXT era as well as the Total Divas era. I didn’t watch Total Divas as it originally aired, but I can accept what a huge role it had in bringing in new fans. A lot of people make Bella jokes, but they’re bigger household names than a lot of your favorite men and it’s all due to Total Divas. At the same time, the Full Sail version of NXT was blasting off, starting with names like Paige and evolving – EVOLVING – to Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Bayley, Sasha Banks, Alexa Bliss and others. Women were on the shows regularly, but two in particular sucked me all the way back in – Sasha and Bayley.

I’ve long been on record that Sasha/Mercedes Mone is my favorite wrestler. No, I don’t care that you don’t like her. I do. She’s great in the ring, backs it up with all the confidence in the world, and knows her worth and gets it plus interest. More of us should do that. Her feud with Bayley is what opened my eyes and brought me all the way back. They were being given chances in front of a crowd of fans that were INTO it and it worked. NXT alone felt like a revolution – there were fans watching that cared about women, the merchandise was strong, and it felt different and fresh. We also had the WWE Network giving us access to everything ever, and also giving them needs for content which birthed the Mae Young Classic.

As the Horsewomen and others moved up to the main roster and we went from Diva’s era to Women’s Revolution, there were good times and bad. No, they weren’t always booked well. They sometimes still struggled to get pay-per-view spots. It did get better though, and we had a mainstream name – Ronda Rousey – join the ranks. Feelings on Ronda are varied, but she helped elevate the division. We started hitting firsts – first Royal Rumble, first WarGames, first Hell in a Cell. It was incredibly cool to me, especially the Rumble. I’ve watched every Rumble match, many crappy (I rewatched the 1995 match the other day and friends, it sucked). It was cool to see the women get their first, even if it was full of legends. The roster has fleshed out where there are plenty of women to fill it, which is an amazing thing (even if they don’t book it well like this year).

And now we’re in the current era, where we’ve finally found our way back to Evolution. Women have main evented WrestleMania. Bayley and Sasha were two of the women who carried the entire company through the pandemic era. Women’s matches open big shows, close shows, and are sometimes the best match on the show. Women have tag titles and midcard titles, though the booking for these haven’t really continuously hit yet. The Saudi shows have been interesting – they’ve gone from “NO GIRLS ALLOWED “ to one women’s match in baggy shirts to multiple actually good women’s matches that the live fans care about.

Let’s not discount the world outside of WWE – TNA has pushed their women’s division hard over the years. AEW’s has been bumpy, but is home to some of the best in the world right now in Toni Storm, Mercedes Mone and Willow Nightingale. There are women thriving on the indies, though many will complain about indie shows having one match for the women with all the women shoved in it.

As a women’s fan, it’s a great time while also rough as always. We have people that look like us on television thriving. The merchandise is great (minus a few things like black eye t-shirts). I regularly wear Rhea and Liv shirts to the gym and get great reactions from other women but also men. Women are some of the biggest stars – period – across the shows. Movie opportunities have popped up. Some of the biggest selling issues of Pro Wrestling Illustrated in the last few years have featured women. At the same time, you face some issues as a female fan. Your DMs on Twitter are full of penises you didn’t ask for and you’re going to be harassed just because you’re a woman. If you go to a live event, you need to go in groups because you still encounter THOSE guys who will harass you.

Women are also doing some cool things outside of the ring. Some of us are writing. You hear some prominent women at press conferences, media calls and doing online shows. There are still needs for improvement – it’s pretty clear there aren’t many women in prominent behind the scenes spots or even writing – and different voices would be nice.

Now, let’s talk about Evolution. First, there’s the “do we need an all-women’s show.” As far as a weekly TV show, I don’t think we do (outside of WOW, which is its own company). Often when I comment that I’d love women to get more time, somebody will mention that maybe they should just have ROH or Main Event. No, the women don’t need to be quarantined to their own little show. Women should be spread through the shows, built evenly, and given opportunities. They don’t have to be hidden on their own show. As far as Evolution, I dig it. In a world of 5-6 match pay-per-views, we’re only going to get two matches a month. I don’t mind an annual special where more women get opportunities.

I’m excited for Evolution. It means a lot to me and seeing some of the women get special opportunities is a lot of fun. Nikki Bella for example might not be for you, but her appearance is incredibly special for others. If you haven’t been exhausted by the other 88 wrestling events this weekend, give it a try. I’ll be here afterwards with a review and we’ll look at all the fun. It’s a very cool time to be a female fan.